KINGBLIND.COM IS BUSY WORKING ON THE TOP 15 ALBUMS OF 2012

Hey Kids, we are busy working on our Top 15 albums of 2012 list. It’s been a great year for music and we are excited to share our findings. Our list (in 3 parts) goes online next week. see you then!!

Beck has kept busy with his upcoming sheet music album Beck Hansen’s Song Reader, but that’s not all he has on deck. In an interview with triple j radio, he revealed that he’s working on a new album, which he started recording back in 2008 (via Consequence of Sound).

The record will be released in “a standard format.” He continued:

“I started a record, largely recorded in 2008, so I’m trying to carve out some time from all the production work I’m doing to finish those songs before they become records from a lost era. It’s going on a half decade at this point.”

Big Boi’s Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors collaboration with Kelly Rowland, “Mama Told Me”, just got a music video, in which the pair dance and strut in front of some fittingly 80s moving visuals, and Kelly gives a blonde wig a go.

Hip hop is slowly, but surely getting back on its feet. There’s Kendrick Lamar, Meek Mill, and of course, those Odd Future misfits to keep it entertaining, while pushing the music forward. However, nothing will compare to the warm samples and off-kilter rhythms of J Dilla. Thankfully, Delicous Vinyl will be releasing new unreleased material dubbed The Lost Scrolls by J Dilla Music Catalogue Curator Frank Nitt. Via Official J Dilla:

“Dilla was my closest childhood friend,” says Frank Nitt. “I went with him out to L.A. that first time in 1996. I met [Delicious Vinyl founder] Mike Ross then and saw he was giving Dilla the opportunity to gethis beats out. Fast forward thirteen years, after Dilla passed, Illa J makes Yancey Boys, and again I go out to L.A. to help with promotion. Mike Ross asked to hear what I was doing, and Delicious Vinyl wound up releasing my Jewels In My Backpack EP. So Delicious Vinyl goes back with Dilla to the beginning, and has always been part of furthering his legacy properly. We’re doing doing this with Delicious Vinyl with the total approval of [Dilla’s mother] Ma Dukes, who’s known and trusted Mike from way back.”

Check out Part 1 of Stussy’s documentary on J Dilla below.

Third Man Records is having a Grand Opening of their new Novelties Lounge on Record Store Day’s annual Black Friday event this year. Here’s a little video (that is quite funny) that explains just what the Novelties Lounge is and what it contains (the world’s only Scopitone machine loaded with modern music! custom Mold-a-Rama machine! Dip n’ Dunk full color Third Man Records Photo Booth!):

Also shown in the video is perhaps the only keyhole peek-a-boo tease single…featuring the world’s oldest burlesque dancer Tempest Storm making her TMR debut with the Tempest Storm Green Series (TMR 129) single. The single really needs to be seen to be believed!

And in celebration of Black Friday, Third Man will be releasing 100 Tri Color 45s of Jack White’s “I’m Shakin” single, plus a trio of singles from The White Stripes including Dead Leaves Ant The Dirty Ground b/w Stop Breaking Down (TMR 170), Hotel Yorba b/w Rated X (TMR 168) and Fell In Love With A Girl b/w I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself (TMR 169).

Wayne Coyne is known for his wacky antics, but this is definitely one of those moments where you can safely say that Coyne has stepped his game up. The Flaming Lips frontman brought a grenade to the Will Rogers Airport in OKC and subsequently shut the place down. Wayne was on his way to La Jolla, CA to catch the musical adaptation of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots when airport security found the little party favor in Coyne’s luggage and no, the grenade was not live. Unfortunately, many people missed their flights and had to shell out more money for new plane tickets, so Coyne tweeted this apology. Via The Lost Ogle:

@waynecoyne
Sorry Sorry Sorry!! Everyone that was inconvenienced because of my grenade at OKC airport!! moby.to/gf33hv

A magazine recently canvassed the opinions of Tame Impala’s Australian mastermind Kevin Parker on the differences between his second album Lonerism and its predecessor, Innerspeaker. On the face of it a straightforward query, but Parker required three goes at the answer, a state of affairs that led the journalist to compare him with Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap. First he suggested Lonerism contained “melodies that beam at you rather than wash over you”. Then he reconsidered, suggesting instead that its songs were “more like an explosion rather than a wave”. And then he decided the new songs were quite like a wave after all: “Like waves that hit you rather than you swimming in an ocean of melody,” he offered, adding a hopeful “know what I mean?”

This is all in keeping with the image of Parker as a kind of heavy-lidded auteur, a man who sings and plays every note on Tame Impala’s records in his Perth bedroom and spent a significant proportion of his debut album bemoaning the deleterious effects of his drug intake on his personal life. “I wanted her, but she doesn’t like the life I lead,” he wailed, “sitting around smoking weed.” That he might cure his romantic agony at a stroke by spending a little less time sitting around smoking weed had apparently not occurred to him, but that’s the logic of the committed stoner for you.

But, as Nigel Tufnell once opined, there’s a very fine line between stupid and clever. And for all Parker seems to enjoy playing the pothead pixie – the YouTube trailer for Lonerism consists of live footage intercut with Parker going “errrm” and “what was I going to say?” – Tame Impala’s albums seem very clever indeed. Psychedelia’s ongoing appeal to musicians is understandable – there’s something seductive about the restless pioneering spirit of rock music in 1966/67 – but to the latterday artist it’s less a genre than a conundrum. It’s supposed to be transcendent, innovative, unbound, futuristic. Equally, it’s a genre that’s become codified, sonically defined by noises that were the cutting-edge in technology and taste 45 years ago: tapes played backwards and out of phase, wah pedals, Eastern-influenced drones, the reedy tones of the Farfisa Compact organ. If you’re minded to make more than a pastiche, to do something other than rearrange a load of cliches, you’re going to have to find a way of reconciling its sound with its forward-thinking ethos. Not an easy job, but like its predecessor, Lonerism pulls it off.

It certainly contains a lot of what you might call psychedelic psignifiers. The drums are usually a fidgety take on the Tomorrow Never Knows tumble; Keep on Lying ends with some mournful organ that sounds exactly like something Richard Wright might have played on the first Pink Floyd album; Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Can Control and Mind Mischief are bathed in phasing effects, their sound panning from speaker to speaker. Moreover, it displays an innate understanding of psychedelia, not least in its balance between the beatific and the bleak: from White Rabbit to Arnold Layne to A Day in the Life, the best psych records were always more gritty and troubled than the popular cartoon of the serene peace-sign-flashing flower child suggested. Here, Gotta Be Above It seems to be a musical depiction of an on stage panic attack, with its whispering voice, jumpy drums and ominous electronics. Meanwhile the melody of Why Won’t They Talk to Me? is as beautiful and its echo-laden sound as spacey as the song’s tone is dark: as is perhaps inevitable if you make your albums alone in one of the most remote cities in the world, Parker seems to have a lot to say about isolation and loneliness, and he says it rather more eloquently than his public image might suggest. But Lonerism never really sounds retro, slathered as it is with electronics. Virtually every instrument is caked in distortion, but not the warm, familiar fuzz of an overdriven amplifier. It feels digital, alien, the sound of modern machines going wrong.

All this is underpinned by genuinely great songwriting. People tend to describe Parker’s melodies as Lennonesque, which in the era of Beady Eye sounds an oddly backhanded compliment, like shorthand for saying he’s not trying at all. But the Lennon he evokes is the author of Happiness Is a Warm Gun and Julia, blessed with an innate pop sensibility, but always searching for the unforeseen chord, the unexpected melodic shift. Ultimately, on Elephant’s warped bovver-glam or the unsettling mix of piano ballad and ferociously noisy guitar soloing that is album closer Sun’s Coming Up, Tame Impala just sound like Tame Impala: delving into the past in order to drag it into the future. No wonder the man at the centre of it all has a hard time describing what he’s doing.

AC/DC is finally releasing its music digitally on iTunes.

Columbia Records and Apple announced Monday that the classic rock band’s music will be available at the iTunes Store worldwide.

Sixteen studio albums will be released, including “High Voltage” and “Back in Black,” which is already in the Top 30 on iTunes’ top albums chart. Two of the group’s albums are also in the Top 100 and seven of the Australian band’s songs are in the Top 200.

AC/DC was one of the few acts that would not release music through the digital outlet. Two years ago Apple struck a deal with The Beatles’ record label, EMI Group, and management company, and began selling the group’s music. Kid Rock, who had also been against selling his music through the digital retailer, is releasing a new album, “Rebel Soul,” on Monday and it’s available on iTunes. Country star Garth Brooks, however, has yet to release his music on iTunes.

Four of AC/DC’s live albums and three compilation records are also available. The statement said the songs have been mastered for iTunes “with increased audio fidelity.”

The group’s first live album in 20 years, “Live at River Plate,” is out Tuesday.

Dave Grohl’s making his debut as a feature documentary director / producer with his film Sound City, and he’s been sharing short videos of musicians talking about their first musical memories. Here is the just released musical memory of Rob Turner from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Here are some other musical memories in case you missed them:
Tom Petty
Mick Fleetwood
Weezer
Trent Reznor

And you can see tons more here (everyone from Josh Homme, Rick Rubin, Rick Springfield, Lars Ulrich, etc.).

To see the trailer of the Sound City movie that Dave Grohl is working on, go HERE

Ex-Girls frontman Christopher Owens, who recently made his solo debut in San Francisco, has announced a full tour, accompanied by a seven-piece band. He’ll play dates across North America through January in promotion of his forthcoming album Lysandre, which is out on January 15 in the U.S. and January 14 in the UK through Fat Possum/Turnstile.

Christopher Owens:
12-07 Lisbon, Portugal – Vodafone Mexefest
12-08 Paris, France – Gaite Lyrique
12-10-11 London, England – St Giles Church
01-15 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
01-16 Ferndale, MI – Magic Bag
01-18 Toronto, Ontario – The Mod Club
01-19 Montreal, Quebec – Cabaret Du Mile-End
01-21 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
01-22 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
01-25 Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
01-26 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
01-27 Washington, D.C. – 9:30 Club
(via pitchfork)

The BBC celebrated its 90th anniversary by broadcasting a composition by Blur’s Damon Albarn called “2LO Calling.” (2LO was the name of the transmitter that broadcast the Beeb’s first signals back in 1922.) Via BBC:

2LO Calling began with the chimes of Big Ben and featured the first ever broadcast from the 2LO transmitter and the number one song at the time – Three O’Clock in the Morning.

The three-minute piece also featured messages from listeners around the world along with the sound of the blackbird and skylark, commentary from the Cameroon election and the ubiquitous BBC pips.

“There is a special musicality to some of the vocal messages, which I tried to preserve,” Albarn told the BBC earlier.

“Added to that, I got to do what I’ve always wanted – to play along with the pips.”

“2LO Calling” was broadcast simultaneously on all of the BBC‘s domestic and foreign radio stations, and had an estimated potential audience of 80 million listeners.

We’ve seen Alabama Shakes bring the house down in full-band, electric form live and on their studio debut, Boys & Girls, but a stripped-down acoustic set from two members of the breakout group is a bit harder to come by. Enter la Blogothèque, one of the best producers of this type of fare, for which frontwoman Brittany Howard and guitarist Heath Fogg roamed the streets of Paris unplugged. Not surprisingly, they broke out one of the record’s more subdued cuts, the title track, before a brand new tune made its official debut for A Take Away Show cameras. Watch a moving take on the Shakes’ “Boys & Girls” above and preview their rollicking new one, “Makin’ Me Itch,” below:

Yo La Tengo have announced details of their new studio album. Fade will be released on January 14 in the UK and January 15 in the U.S. via Matador. The follow-up to 2009′s Popular Songs was recorded with John McEntire at Soma Studios in Chicago. Check out the tracklist below, along with dates for the band’s 2013 tour. (This December, they’ll also continue their tradition of Hanukkah shows at the Hoboken club Maxwell’s.) The deluxe edition of the LP features a bonus 7″ containing covers of Todd Rundgren’s “I Saw the Light” and Times New Viking’s “Move to California”, while the deluxe digital version contains “an additional 11-minute bonus track, untitled as of this writing,” according to the Matablog.

Fade:
01 Ohm
02 Is That Enough
03 Well You Better
04 Paddle Forward
05 Stupid Things
06 I’ll Be Around
07 Cornelia and Jane
08 Two Trains
09 The Point of It
10 Before We Run

Yo La Tengo:
12-8-15 Hoboken, NJ – Maxwells (Hanukkah shows)
01-23 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
01-24 Charlottesville, VA – Jefferson
01-25 Atlanta, GA – Buckhead *
01-26 Nashville, TN – Mercy Lounge
01-27 Birmingham, AL – WorkPlay
01-29 Louisville, KY – Brown *
01-31 St. Louis, MO – Pageant *
02-01 Chicago, IL – Vic
02-02 Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall
02-04 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
02-05 Madison, WI – Barrymore
02-07 Cleveland, OH – Beachland
02-08 Ann Arbor, MI – Michigan Theater
02-09 Toronto, Ontario – Phoenix
02-11 Montreal, Quebec – Corona
02-12 Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
02-13 Boston, MA – Paradise
02-15 Washington, DC – 9:30
02-16 New York, NY – Town Hall
03-01 Lisbon, Portugal – Aula Magna
03-02 Porto, Portugal – Casa Da Musica
03-06 Barcelona, Spain – Festival Millenni
03-08 Lausanne, Switzerland – Les Docks
03-10 Milan, Italy – Limelight
03-11 Frankfurt, Germany – Mousontourm
03-12 Dusseldorf, Germany – Zakk
03-13 Berlin, Germany – Volksbuhne
03-16 Brussels, Belgium – AB
03-17 Amsterdam, Holland – Paradiso
03-18 Paris, France – Le Bataclan
03-20 London, England – Barbican
03-21 Manchester, England – The Ritz
03-22 Glasgow, Scotland – O2 ABC
03-23 Dublin, Ireland – Vicar Street
* with Calexico

Soundgarden release their reunion album King Animal today, and they celebrated release date eve by appearing on the Late Show With David Letterman, stomping their way through the single “Been Away Too Long.” On the show, they sounded and looked snarly and unkempt in a good way, like the forest-ape rock band that they were originally supposed to be. Watch the performance below.

Moving forth with his revived live show, Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum has announced U.S. tour dates for January and February. (As mentioned, he’ll also play the Occupy Wall Street-affiliated Strike Debt telethon on November 15.) The 2013 tour is detailed at his website, which notes that a portion of proceeds from ticket sales and box sets will benefit Children of the Blue Sky. Dates will be supported by the Music Tapes, Tall Firs, and Briars of North America.

On his website, Mangum shared the following zany note:
hello friends in a flock of finches unfolding from the face of a foam horse on the phone to inform you that jeff is heading out for one last u.s. acoustic tour, giving him the chance to play to all the silver citizens dwelling in citys that he has yet to sing in.

Watch Jeff Mangum play “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” in 1998, after the dates.

01-09 Buffalo, NY – Ashbury Hall, Babeville *#
01-10 Pittsburgh, PA – Carnegie Music Hall *#
01-11 Cleveland, OH – Ohio City Masonic Temple *#
01-12 Detroit, MI – Redford Theatre *#
01-14 Columbus, OH – Southern Theatre *#
01-15 Bloomington, IN – Bushkirk-Chumley *#
01-16 St. Louis, MO – Sheldon Concert Hall *
01-18 Lawrence, KS – Liberty Hall *
01-19 Oklahoma City, OK – ACM, UCO – Performance Lab *
01-20 Dallas, TX – Majestic Theater *
01-21 Houston, TX – Cullen Theater, the Wortham Center *
01-23 New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks *
01-24 Tallahassee, FL – The Moon *
01-25 Gainesville, FL – Florida Theater *
01-26 Orlando, FL – The Beacham *
01-28 Augusta, GA – Sky City *
01-29 Charleston, SC – Charleston Music Hall *
01-30 Wilmington, NC – Brooklyn Arts Center, St. Andrews *
01-31 Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre *
02-01 Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theatre *
02-02 Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle *
02-04 Charlottesville, VA – Jefferson Theater *
02-05 Wilmington, DE – Dupont Theatre *
02-06 York, PA – Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center *
02-08 Hartford, CT – The Great Hall in Union Station *!
02-09 Portland, ME – State Theater *!
02-10 Providence, RI – Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel *!
02-13 Ithaca, NY – State Theatre *!
02-14 Clinton, NY – Hamilton College Chapel *
02-15 Poughkeepsie, NY – Barvadon Opera House*!
02-16 North Adams, MA – MASS MoCA *!

* with Tall Firs
# with Briars of North America
! with the Music Tapes

Wayne Coyne and co. have covered King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King in its entirety. Via Exclaim:

While we await their new studio album, wacky art rockers the Flaming Lips have followed up their Heady Fwends project with another special release. This time, it’s an entire reworking of King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King.

The album is called Playing Hide and Seek with the Ghosts of Dawn, and in addition to the Lips it includes appearances from New Fumes, Stardeath, White Dwarfs, Linear Downfall and Spacefac

To delve into the work of Michael Gira is to accept the man’s excesses as well as his triumphs. Musically speaking, the impresario of No Wave’s longest living entity, Swans, Gira has cultivated a grand and amorphous canon that boasts varying degrees of aural scarification, exercises in avant-propulsive throb and assault and, as of 2010 with My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, culturally informed compositions bred from his attachment to lawlessly conceived shock and awe.

As Swans toured for My Father in 2010 and 2011, songs began to form from the recesses of their traveling brains during rehearsals and performances, the band toying structurally in front of audiences until final versions were recorded. Some early versions of these songs were captured on a limited run handmade double live LP called, We Rose From Your Bed With The Sun In Our Head, an album that not only documented some highlights of the band’s tour, but also offered a preview of The Seer, Swans’ latest master work. Funded largely by money earned through sales of the limited edition album, which numbered 1,000 and had been sold out within 24 hours, The Seer, according to Gira, is the “the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I’ve made, been involved in or imagined.” Listening to The Seer, it does sound dangerously absolute, its surrealistic intensity, abstruse composition and overt theatricality securing for the band a creative peak, one considerable enough to leave little left for any subsequent releases. How does one carry on when the mountain’s been scaled, when the view’s been absorbed and considered? There seems to be so much more distance left to tackle, but how do you reach the sky?

The Seer boasts that level of enormity and its realization is an overwhelming feat; its body and soul is both suspenseful and destructive, corrosive and replenishing. Scaffolds of ritualized bells and militaristic percussion erected, Lunacy’s testimony is a choral announcement, an asylum’s gospel. With vocal aid provided by Low’s Al Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, the album is introduced as a processional hymn, the dirge-like pronouncements suggesting bowed heads and painful respect as Gira nears the altar.

As with My Father, The Seer is rife with orchestrated loops. Acting as foundations for much of the drama that sustains the album, songs like Mother of the World and Avatar function through layers of additional sounds and either generate in volume or result in abrupt or smooth transitions, changing as scenery does the farther you travel, or detouring suddenly and unexpectedly. Mother of the World for instance grows out of one singular washing machine of an instrumental loop, a hollow snare beat following just after its natural rhythm. After its intro, what ensues is a sophisticated rock song and it becomes beautifully melodic, its third act suitable for Gira’s sung verses.

Intros, too, become immersive, heavily detailed and lengthy. The Seer, the album’s most excessive opus, begins as an impenetrable barrier of free form sounds (bagpipes, accordion, horns) that eventually crumbles. A steaming pulse begins, anchoring new sounds that act on cue, snare rolls and psychedelic guitar chords, subtle bass line and bending strings. Gira repeats, “I’ve seen it all, I’ve seen it all, I’ve seen it all…etc.,” his tone threatening, complimenting the music’s gradual increase in volume and traction. Eventually, the music becomes therapeutic, long sections devoted to the continuous striking of chords and percussion, hammering away till a tom-accentuated psychedelic guitar jam carries the song to close. At a little over 32 minutes, one can’t help but wonder if Gira borders a tad on the side of self-indulgence as opposed to compositional freedom. With so much of the track generously turned over to frustrated tangents of unlistenable reaction, where’s the necessity other than to appease Gira’s vision?

Still, certain realities about the music itself can’t be denied, that the title track’s resolve is so clearly achieved even in spite of what it could’ve potentially sacrificed in terms of the album, not to mention how forceful it’s performed, leaves it a lasting and impressionable centerpiece. It’s also well-sequenced in that its over ambition is followed by the casual stride of The Seer Returns (ex-Swan Jarboe appearing as a backing vocalist), the erratic string and drum discord of 93 Ave. B Blues and then the very haunting acoustic song, The Daughter Brings The Water.

Considered the progeny of NYC’s 80s art rock/No Wave scene, Karen O’s inclusion in the album could be seen as some navigable bridge into millennial familiarity or just as simply a collaboration between peers. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman sings Song for the Warrior, a lap steel whining in the breeze as O ably translates the song’s anthemic nature. This, like the album’s earlier and similarly isolated The Wolf, is folk-based and minimal, a heavy contrast to the more ornate Avatar or the heavily embellished A Piece of the Sky, ambient tones and scattered chimes trailing a crackling fire within its first ten minutes.

The Apostate, like The Seer, ends the second LP with trenchant and disconnected noise, seemingly disinterested in structure until momentum is rhythmically captured and a steady percussive interaction begins, intensity slowly brought to fruition until a nonsensical clattering of drums fumble, almost like the kits have been dropped down a flight of stairs. The ceremonial flow of music is abruptly ceased and you don’t really get a second to consider its impact, which may have been Gira’s motivation for closing the album in such a haphazard way. The Seer is after all, based in the non-referencing sound and legacy of No Wave, the notion of melody or structure seen as bourgeoisie pursuits. While Swans have evolved past this somewhat limiting, but still dynamic, viewpoint, The Seer tests the boundaries of good taste vs. cacophonic insanity, figuring out if we do truly live in the era of shortened attention spans and immediate gratification, or if music listeners still have the ability to discern between the sound of independently driven media and spoon-fed, commercially viable mediocrity.

Gira says he’s “seen it all.” He repeats it past the point of merely understanding the words themselves. So, the question is, if we’ve gotten to the point where one can say with all certainly, “I”ve seen it all,” (as this, in my view, pertains more to current musical trends than to the characterization in a song) where does art or music go from here? Are we through with revivalism, should music find new areas to dwell and inspire? The Seer is 30 years’ worth of effort, a unique and exciting height earned after decades of creation, experimentation and unconventional musical disassembly. Ultimately, it’s an argument against immediate gratification and proof that we haven’t seen it all. Or, heard it all, thankfully.

Trent Reznor– along with his major label side-project, video game music, headphone partnership, and, of course, recent triumphs in film scoring– says new music from Nine Inch Nails is in the works, as Rolling Stone reports.

Nine Inch Nails have been inactive since their 2009 “farewell” tour, but, as you may recall, Reznor hinted at hypothetical plans to exercise his NIN writing chops back in January. Now he’s told RS that “all signs point to yes” for new music, and that “there are some things in the works.” He also said it’s possible they’ll play live again “if it feels right.”

“Having a few years doing other things, I’ve enjoyed [them] and I’m enjoying doing How to destroy angels_, and there will be a place for stuff that falls in the Nine Inch Nails column of things,” Reznor told Rolling Stone. “It’s a different kind of work.” Regarding the trajectory of his past few years, he said, “It’s been an unexpected, weird ride. I’m just trying to approach things with integrity and try to find things that are interesting to me.”

Reznor also mentioned that How to destroy angels_, who are releasing their An omen_ EP on November 13, will have a full-length record in early 2013, with music videos coming soon, and live performances next year.

ATP has announced the first line-up additions for their two 2013 festivals, to be curated by TV on the Radio (May 10 – 12) and Deerhunter (June 21 – 23) at Pontins Holiday Camp in Camber Sands, England.
TV on the Radio will be joined by Spank Rock, El-P, Saul Williams, Tinariwen, Shabazz Palaces, Thee Oh Sees, CSS, Daniel Higgs of Lungfish, Celebration, Talibam!, and North America.

Deerhunter will play three sets at their own weekend, performing Cryptograms, Microcastle, and Halcyon Digest in full, which will also feature Atlas Sound, Panda Bear, Avey Tare, Animal Collective DJs, Pere Ubu, Dan Deacon, Tim Gane, Laetitia Sadier, No Age, and Black Lips, who have been “officially pardoned by ATP.”

Festival organisers Barry Hogan and Deborah Higgins told the Village Voice in 2009 that the Atlanta, GA, band would never play the festival again due to their “No Assholes” policy. “They broke into a chalet and started stealing stuff,” said Hogan.

ATP’s 2012 editions kick off at the end of the month with Shellac’s weekend, for which Kim Deal– playing a solo show– and Future of the Left were recently confirmed…

America’s longest-running independent, free form community radio station, Jersey City’s WFMU, returned to the airwaves on Monday, a week after Hurricane Sandy knocked out its transmitters. While that’s great news for music lovers in the New York Metro area, the station’s still very much in jeopardy. Via Capital New York:

WFMU took a $250,000 hit as a result of the storm, said Freedman when Capital caught up with him later in the day—no small thing for an independent community radio facility overwhelmingly funded by listener support. It was another reminder that Sandy’s impact will continue to be felt by the region’s cultural institutions long after the last FEMA truck has left.

WFMU, which runs on an annual budget of $1.8 million, lost an estimated $150,000 from the cancellation last weekend of its annual record fair at Chelsea’s Metropolitan Pavilion, said Freedman, who’s been with the station since 1985. It was the first cancellation in the 20-year history of the three-day event, which provides a much-needed cash infusion to help sustain WFMU in the months heading into its annual March fund-raising drive. Beyond that, a brownout that occurred before most of Jersey City lost power altogether last Monday caused significant electrical damage to valuable studio equipment including audio processors, computers and the fire alarm system.

Apparently the station only has $15,000 in the bank after paying its staff. The station has raised about $40,000 since the storm, and is considering a one day record fair in Brooklyn, as well as a special pledge drive to raise money.

To donate to WFMU, the long standing champion of independent music, weird talk and other things that make radio worth listening to, check out their website.
(via daily swarm)

Just 21 years after the release of their shoegaze classic Loveless, My Bloody Valentine will release their very, very long-awaited third album this year, according to frontman Kevin Shields. Via Pitchfork:

According to NME, the upcoming album will also be followed by an EP of new recordings to be released next year. Shields said the new record “really frees us up, and in the bigger picture it’s 100% necessary.”

“People who like us will immediately connect with something,” he said. “Based on the very, very few people who’ve heard stuff—some engineers, the band, and that’s about it—some people think it’s stranger than Loveless. I don’t.”

Shields said that the record will be made available on the band’s website.

We’d like to congratulate the MBV crew for doing the impossible and making Chinese Democracy look prompt.

Today on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 program, Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme announced that drummer Joey Castillo has left the band. Dave Grohl, who played on 2002′s Songs for the Deaf, will drum on the new album, out sometime next year..

Queens of the Stone Age play England’s Download Festival June 14-16, 2013 with Iron Maiden, Rammstein, Alice in Chains, the Gaslight Anthem, Motörhead, and more…

Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr has announced that he will be releasing his first solo album, The Messenger, on February 25th, 2012 through Warner Bros. Via Johnny-Marr.com:

The album was recorded in Manchester and Berlin and mastered at Abbey Road. Johnny has contributed writing, vocals, guitar and production on the album, songs titles include, I Want The Heartbeat, The Right Thing Right, Upstart, Word Starts Attack & European Me.

Marr will also be touring the UK starting March 2013 in addition to festivals around the world.

Thom Yorke’s project Atoms for Peace with Nigel Godrich, Flea, Joey Waronker, and Mauro Refosco are releasing their debut full-length sometime early next year via XL. Details are still to be confirmed; the previously reported January 28 release date is not accurate. However, Yorke recently spoke with Rolling Stone about the LP.

The group formed to perform songs off Yorke’s 2006 solo album The Eraser. After those shows in 2010, the band recorded material for the upcoming album at a studio in L.A.

Yorke called the record “mechanistic” and described the group’s process, fusing the 2010 session recordings with electronic laptop compositions and additional studio work by himself and Godrich. “One of the things we were most excited about was ending up with a record where you weren’t quite sure where the human starts and the machine ends,” Yorke said. He likened himself to a conductor during the recording sessions, and called his laptop works “angular,” “brittle,” and “exciting.”

According to Godrich, the record was a “compromise” for Yorke. “This is the eternal battle with Thom,” Godrich said. “He’s like, ‘I really want to make a dance record. But I have to sing on it, or nobody’s going to fucking care.’” To which Yorke said, “The best tunes I dance to always have at least one good vocal idea. There’s no such thing, to me, as a good tune with no vocals.”
Describing the recording process, Yorke said, “We were at Flea’s house. We got wasted, played pool and listened to Fela Kuti all night.”

The tracklist for the record has yet to be confirmed, but Rolling Stone mentions several cuts: “Dropped”, “Before Your Very Eyes”, “Stuck Together Pieces”, “Reverse Running”, and “Judge, Jury and Executioner”. On “Judge”, Yorke said, “The phrase spewed out when I was playing the song on guitar. It was like a key, opening a door into all this other stuff I was desperate to get out.” Meanwhile, “Reverse Running” is a “head-space thing,” according to Yorke. “I’d love to be a storyteller,” he said. “But I can’t do it.”

Watch a clip of “The Eraser” from the first Atoms for Peace show:

Being a badass rockstar is harder than it looks, but we love you just the way your are, Ben Gibbard. The Death Cab for Cutie front man’s solo debut Former Lives is available now…

Horn-heavy rock’n'rollers Rocket from the Crypt officially disbanded back in 2005, but it looks as if the San Diego crew have something up their sleeves for 2013. While details are supremely scant at present, the band posted an image on their Facebook page that brandishes their familiar rocket silhouette logo and the message “2013.”
Fans are already blowing up the comments section, pondering whether this means the band are prepping some reunion dates or possibly and LP, but the group have yet to lay out their plans for the coming year.

Considering guitarist/vocalist John Reis dusted off Hot Snakes in 2011, a reunion tour can’t be ruled out. Also, despite not playing live since their farewell Halloween gig in 2005, Rocket from the Crypt did manage to get back together for a recent performance on kids show Yo Gabba Gabba!

If you’re one of the proud people sporting a RFTC tattoo, you just might get another chance to get into a show or two pro bono. No doubt some are sharing one Facebook fan’s quip: “I hope this isn’t a cruel cruel joke.”

Despite issuing Yo Gabba Gabba! track “He’s a Chef” on a 7-inch earlier this year, Rocket from the Crypt haven’t dropped a studio album since 2002′s Live from Camp X-Ray…

Chris Lawhorn, the man behind Fugazi Edits, a project which re-combobulated the whole of Fugazi’s dischography into an album-length dissertation on the band’s sound. Whoa…

In an extended back’n’forth email correspondence in advance of the album’s release, Lawhorn talked about the pleasures of cutting things up, about the varying density of the resulting material, and about pondering with Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye the discrepancy between the words “edit” and “remix.” What follows is a lightly edited transcript of this email discussion:

(via boing boing)

Adorable synthpop pixie Grimes has cancelled her upcoming 14 date European tour, which was supposed to kick off next month, due to undisclosed medical problems. She cancelled several Canadian dates this month due to tinnitus. Via Exclaim:

In an announcement on Facebook, Claire Boucher revealed that she has called off her entire 14-date European run, which was scheduled to begin on November 13th and wrap up on December 1st.

Over on Twitter, she wrote, “I will be updating shortly about which shows will be rescheduled.” But it appears many will be cancelled outright.

Hopefully she gets better soon, she’s too young to be canceling dates due to medical problems….

Apple is preparing to strengthen their grip on the music industry, Bloomberg reports. The company is in talks with major labels over licensing so that they can launch a Pandora-like Internet radio station as soon as early 2013. According to Bloomberg, execs from Universal, Sony, and Warner Bros. recently met at Apple headquarters to discuss how to share ad revenue generated by the service.
Apple’s service will look to compete with Pandora, the biggest Internet radio station in existence, by achieving looser licensing deals with labels so that listeners have fewer limitations on what they can hear. This is bad news for Pandora, whose stock has been on the decline.

Unlike Pandora, Apple’s proposed service won’t rely on web-browser delivery. Naturally, it’ll be focused on an app for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. In exchange for greater flexibility, Apple may offer labels the chance to insert their own advertisements for artists in the app…